Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Department of Geology, Khorramshahr University of Marine Science and Technology, Khorramshahr, Iran.
Abstract
The importance of the study of Quaternary deposits has increased to such an extent that it now occupies a significant part of research in different parts of the world. In oil-rich countries, including Iran, pollution caused by oil industry activities such as drilling and exploitation has seriously threatened the sediments and soils around these areas. The Abteymour oilfield is one of the big fields in southwestern Iran, located in the area of agricultural lands. As a result, it is very important to evaluate its environmental effects. In this research, 33 surface soil samples were collected and in addition to measuring the concentration of heavy metals, some physical and chemical characteristics of the soil were measured. To identify the source of pollutants, statistical analyses such as correlation coefficient, principal component analysis, and cluster analysis were used. To determine the level of heavy metal pollution, environmental geological indices such as Igeo, EF, Cf, and NIP were used. The results of cluster analysis showed that the studied elements are clustered in two groups. Also, the results of the factor analysis showed that 89% of the variation of the studied parameters is affected by two factors. In total, the results of the statistical analysis showed that the pollution in the region is of anthropogenic origin and the activities related to the extraction and exploitation of the Abteymour oilfield, agricultural activities, and wastewater have an impact on the quality of the soil in the area. Investigation of the pollution level of the samples based on the Igeo, EF, Cf, and NIP indices showed that the samples are unpolluted for most of the studied elements. For the Na, Mg, Cr, Ni, Sr, Cu, Li, and Pb elements, some samples have low levels of pollution
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